Caterham's approach vindicated - Van der Garde

Giedo van der Garde believes Caterham has had its approach to 2013 vindicated after two strong races in succession.

Before the mid-season break van der Garde secured the best result of his rookie year so far with 14th place in Hungary, and he followed that up with a place in Q2 thanks to changeable conditions at Spa before eventually finishing the race in 16th. With Caterham comfortably outperforming Marussia in recent races, van der Garde says it demonstrates that the team has got its approach to the season right.

"After the last couple of races I'll go to Monza feeling positive about the next race and the rest of the season," van der Garde said. "The whole team had a lot of praise for what we did in Spa, particularly taking advantage of the conditions on Saturday, and it's good to see people understanding that what we're doing now is exactly what we said we would do this year - learn, improve and deliver the results we want. 14th in Hungary and both qualifying and the race in Spa show how the package is coming on and it's a good feeling for me and the whole team."

Van der Garde was also hopeful that Caterham would be strong in any conditions in Italy.

"Moving on to Monza - it's a track that could suit us in the fight with our nearest competitors. It's often hot and it's the quickest track of the year, one where we run very low downforce settings and that should suit our car. Last year the team was pretty competitive and we'll aim to make sure we are again.

"If it's not hot and we have anything like the conditions we did in Spa then we've shown we can take advantage of unpredictable weather, and even though another P3 in Q1 might be unlikely, we still know we can be bold and aggressive when there's a chance to surprise a few people. Maybe our next chance will be Monza - if not I'm sure there will be other races this year when we can show what we can do."